Melancholia Movie Review: Keep Calm And Carry On

Melancholia is an intense drama about the lives of two sisters living in a world that’s basic existence is being threatened. While the two struggle with each other on a daily basis, a rogue planet, Melancholia, threatens to slowly collide with Earth. The film may be a bit too intense for an anxiety ridden person such as myself, as the idea of everything we know coming to a disastrous end is absolutely terrifying! The mystery of our vast universe is overwhelming enough for me without the thought of imminent doom coming straight for you at 60,000 miles per hour. The threat is hard to take your mind off of, although for the first half of the movie you’re pretty much in the dark about what’s actually lying in wait.

Act one starts us off with the somewhat foreboding wedding of Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgard). There was so much confusion about what was happening and why all the bizarre awkwardness between Justine and her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) during the celebration until it’s brought to your attention in the second act that Justine clearly suffers from bouts of depression and just plain debilitating sadness. Her relationships with her parents, coworkers and own husband are anything but normal and if it weren’t for her sister and brother-in-law, John (Keifer Sutherland), she’d be left with no one to care for her at all. All of Justine’s despondency oddly begins to seem less like a disease and more like a prophecy of what’s in store for the world’s future. The very first sequence of the film is filled with slow moving scenes of dark landscapes and nature falling apart at the seams, perhaps images that Justine had been seeing since she explains so simply later in the movie that “she just knows things.”

Before I begin to mislead you into thinking that this is horrible Michael Bay action or sci-fi flick where the end of the world is approaching and we need a hero to save us, let me tell you it couldn’t be further from it. While Melancholia is about going through the motions of life and accepting the inevitable, it’s more about how each individual handles the stress of their own mortality. While John is an astronomy enthusiast who is in denial and convinced that Melancholia poses no real threat, Claire is the worrier, or perhaps pessimist, believing in the old adage: expect the worst and hope for the best. I couldn’t blame her, though. A thousand top notch scientists could give me the fantastic news that there is nothing to fear, but when I’m literally face to face with an alien planet, I won’t believe it until it’s over. All throughout the ordeal, Justine is serene, although sometimes expressing direct apathy toward her sensitive sister’s feelings, but this could be either her acceptance of her fate or simply the characteristics of a melancholy person.

The effects and visuals of Melancholia were alluring and well done. They did a just job making the cosmic sequences believable, alarming, and beautiful all at the same time. The movie was a bit more than a solid two hours, so it felt as though Melancholia took its time trying to explain and get its point across but, when things begin to wrap up, it all starts to make sense. I felt the sadness of Justine over her misfortunes and I could feel the panic in Claire when she was feeling utterly helpless. Not to mention, the notion that a scientific oddity such as Melancholia could be lurking in the dark depths of outer space was enough to have me Googling my own crazy cosmogonic scenarios soon after watching this. At least humanity is safe for the time being except now I think I’m a little depressed. That aside, it’s definitely worth a view.

Images courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.